Collin is definitely 3

Mark is out of town for 2 weeks and I think the kids definitely go crazy when he's gone. Or maybe I'm just more crazy so they seem more crazy. Collin has been on one the last couple of days. It started a couple of nights ago when I was looking for his nose sucker. He is just learning to really blow his nose so I sometimes have to assist. He really doesn't like it. So I couldn't find his nose sucker and asked where it was. He told me that he had turned it. Not having a clue what that meant, he had to repeat it several times for me. He finally took me over to the diaper pail (which you put a diaper in and then turn the top over so the diaper will drop in). Apparently he disliked the nose sucker so much that he got rid of it. It was buried under a sackful of poopie diapers.
Then yesterday, my good friend Karen came to town and we were planning on meeting up with her for dinner. As soon as she called saying she was ready to go, I went in search of Collin. He was in his room with a handful of wetwipes. He informed me that he was cleaning the pen. And he needed his hands washed. Upon retrieving the pen, I noticed it was gummy. With further inspection, I realized it was Modge Podge. (Which I had mistakenly left out after finishing a project in the living room. In my defense it was tucked away on a table) I ran into the living room and discovered that Collin had dipped several nearby objects in the Modge Podge and also thought that he could paint my project. There were piles and piles of glue on the letter blocks I had just finished for his room. So I was able to quickly clean those up and went back to the bathroom to get Collin, only to discover that he was coloring the sink with a dry erase marker. Clara has those readily available in her room. So I cleaned that up and packed Collin out to the car where he told me that his toy was stuck. He pulled me over to the front of the car where I found a small toy he had stuffed into the grill of my car. I was able to fish that out and we finally made it to dinner. I was exhausted. And this all happened in the course of 5 minutes.
Then today as I was putting a diaper in the diaper pail, I noted that it wasn't turning over and dropping as it should. Looking closer, I found a piece of gum wedged in between the plunger and the side. Collin really likes turning things over in that thing.
Mark doesn't come home for a week and a half.

To Infinity and Beyond

This post is a long time coming. I've been wanting to post about it since Collin's birthday in March but didn't have a photo. I finally downloaded this off of my parents computer so I can finally post it. Collin has been into Buzz Lightyear for a while now. For his birthday he received several Buzz related gifts including these wings and arm shield things from my parents. He first saw them unwrapped when we arrived at my parents house for a visit shortly after his birthday. My mom wouldn't let him have them until his party so he could unwrap them. He waited impatiently all weekend until finally his party arrived. He promptly put them on and insisted on going outside. My dad took him out there. We saw him through the window and couldn't help but laugh as he squatted and prepped for a take-off. After several attempts, he came inside with just the saddest, most crestfallen look on his face. In a sad little voice he proclaimed "I can't fly". He thought that the wings would really make him fly and was so disappointed that they didn't work. We wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. He was just so sad.

Vegas and California

Wow, this summer has gone by fast. We have done so much in the short two months. It started off with a trip to Vegas and California. My clogging team takes a trip to Disneyland every year and whoever wants to go can perform if they want to. So quite a few from my team went. I tried to download a video of us dancing but it wouldn't work. Sorry. Before we headed to Disneyland, we stopped in Vegas and spent a few days with my sister. Then we headed to John and Ema's for a couple of days. We had our nephew Connor with us as well so that he could spend some time with our other nephew Ezra. They are best friends.


Connor, Clara and Collin at the Hoover Dam. The new bridge is almost done.

Mark and Simon. Right before I took the picture Melissa told them to make a manly pose. Really this is what they came up with? Mark and his cheesy grin, and Simon with his umbrella.


Me and Melissa.

Most of the group. Collin, me, Clara, Connor, Sam, Melissa and Lucy.


We also went on a little hike at Red Rock. It was super hot so we didn't last long. Plus Simon was so worried about Lucy getting sunburned that he followed her around with the before seen umbrella. The kids had fun rock scrambling though.

After the heat in Vegas it was nice spending time in Thousand Oaks with John and Ema. The beach was a little cold the day we went but the kids had fun anyway.

Connor, Ezra and Clara. All the same age.




Then it was time for Disneyland. We spent 3 days there and had a great time. It's nice having kids that can ride most of the rides. Clara got to ride the bigger rides twice so both Mark and I could go on them. It was fun performing. My clogging team came to Disneyland when I was 14 and it was weird being a performer at 34. But it was an excuse to get a discount to Disneyland.

4 years ago, we took a lot of time seeing way too many princesses but Clara was in that age and phase where she was so excited to see them. This year Collin is in the Buzz Lightyear phase. So the Toy Story Characters were the ones we wanted to see. Luckily for both Buzz and Woody we were able to jump in line close to the front and didn't have to wait too long. Clara was a little sad that we didn't see any princesses but thankfully she's over that phase and got over it pretty quickly.


All of us from my team who performed. If we can, we're going to try and go next year.

Hiking the Y

I thought it would be fun to hike the Y with Clara this year. She's big enough to not complain about all the walking. I didn't want to take Collin since he would complain and he's way to big to take in the backpack on such a steep hike. I can barely heft myself up the hill let alone with 25 pounds on my back. So Clara and I decided to go on Memorial Day. I think that is the craziest day to hike it. There were so many people there. But we had a good time. Clara did so good and didn't complain at all. She did fall running down the hill at the end and scraped her leg up. She told everybody she didn't have a good time because she hurt herself. But I'm pretty sure she had a good time and I was so proud of her getting all the way to the top.



Clara wanted a picture with the Y really small in the background.

At the top.

Mysteries of Monster Grove

Here are some pictures from the show I just designed the lights for. It's called the Mysteries of Monster Grove and it is a fun kid's show. As you can see the costumes are really fun. It's based on some children's books written by a local Utah author. If you have kids and are looking to go to a fun show, check it out. Nelke Theatre at BYU 7 p.m. running for the next 2 weeks.

My funny kids

I still have some pictures of Collin's birthday to post. My parents gave him the cutest Buzz Lightyear dressup thing that he carries around in the Buzz Lightyear suitcase my sister gave him. There's a funny story about all that that I will share when I get the pictures.

In the meantime, some other funny things going on. Collin has moved into a toddler bed which hasn't been to hard of an adjustment. He goes to bed really well. Doesn't do the whole in and out of bed a million times before he falls asleep. However, he does like to get up several times during the night now. Well, as some know, I am not a very good sleeper, especially when I am startled awake by a child thumping his way up the stairs and then screaming our names. Mark was convinced that it would pass after a few days. So Mark got to find out if it would pass, while sleeping on the couch. After about a week of that, even Mark was tired of it. We tried putting a child gate over his door so that we could hear him but he couldn't come wandering up. That worked for one night until Collin figured he could push things over to the gate and climb over. The best was when we found his dirty clothes hamper emptied and pushed over. He's resourceful if anything else at 3 in the morning. So we finally put a child door knob thing on the back of his door and shut his door. It's seems to be working for now. He doesn't yell or get out of bed. He doesn't like those door knob things though. We have one on our food pantry so he doesn't rummage and snack on chips all day. Below is him trying to open up the door with his large, plastic tools. He tried several of them including a saw and screwdriver. As a last ditch effort, he tried the wrench. It didn't work, much to his annoyance.




Clara has written some rules for her room and proudly displayed them on the door. This was prompted by Collin tromping on a very elaborate dollhouse she had created for her playmobile figures. She really has no patience for Collin and his antics. He is in kind of a destructive phase right now.

0. (Obviously added after she wrote 1-9) Don't make faces.
1. Put the things you got out away when done.
2. Don't reck eney thing.
3. Don't take eneything off of my dresser without asking.
4. Don't hide in my closet or under my bed.
5. Don't get eneything of a shelf without pramishen.
6. Don't try to get the fish or it will maby Die.
7. Plese don't get my dressups out without pramishen.
8. Make sure my brother dosn't come in when I made something.
9. Daddy needs to snugle every night.

Easter

Just a quick post on our Easter festivities. We had the 3rd annual Ohran family glow in the dark easter egg hunt with Mark's family. Plus we did a traditional egg dying/easter egg hunt with just us. Minus the fact that it snowed Easter morning, we had a good time.




We used to make these bunnies when I was a kid, and they were fun. So Clara and I tried them this year. They're kind of and orange roll. Clara had a good time punching the dough and forming the bunnies. Collin helped roll the tails.

Before the baking.

The final product.